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Redox Tower
The Redox tower is possibly the most complicated part of the game, but it is also the most powerful as it allows you to rearrange your metabolism to obtain energy from endless combination of nutrients. The main thing to remember is, like the rest of the game, experiment around a little, don't get frustrated if you die, and learn as you go. Steps and Requirements To unlock each redox step, you need the corresponding gene to be greater than or equal to the gene level. Increasing the gene value above that amount makes that step perform faster. How To To get you started, think of metabolism as capturing the energy as electrons shuffle around. Eletctrons will move down from "high" energy molecules to "low" energy molecules. Molecules are arranged as redox pairs, or half reactions which tell what happens to the molecule as the electron moves around. An example half reaction is Fe2+/Fe3+. Redox stands for reduction oxidation. As one molecule in the pair reduces the other oxidizes. Reduction and oxidation refer to the oxidation state of the molecule, which can be seen as it's charge. A better way to see this is a molecule is reduced when it gains an electron, and oxidized when it loses its electron. So where is the electron moving in this half reaction? - it depends, you need two half reactions for a full reaction to understand what happens to the electron. The scientific term is electro-potential, but the game just lists the half reaction in order, where the electron always travels downward. As the electron travels downward, energry is "captured" (in ATP or in the game just energy), so the cell can survive. Example Now for an example. Let's take the two half reactions S/H2S (Sulfur/Hydrogen Sulfide) and Fe3+/Fe2+ (Iron III, Iron II). In this pair, S/H2S is higher than Fe3+/Fe2+, so the electron will go from the sulfur half to the iron half. But does the electron come from H2S or S? - It comes from H2S. The electron donator is always on the right side of the first reaction. Releasing electrons from H2S will turn it into S. Where does the electron go to Fe3+ or Fe2+? It goes to Fe3+. The electron acceptor is on the left of the second reaction. Accepting an electron turns Fe3+ to Fe2+. How does this relate to the game? - Depending how you set up your metabolim, determines what your bacteria will need to 'eat' for energy, and what is waste. Collecting the Nutrients You will need to collect your electron donator and acceptor. In the previous example that would be collecting H2S and Fe3+. S and Fe2+ are therefore waste and take up needed space in the cell unless you get rid of them. It is an interesting phenomenaun that the larger step in energy you take between two steps, the more energy is lost. To counter this problem, it you add additional steps between your first and last step, your metabolism scheme becomes more robust and you will be able to capture more energy as the electrons move down the tower. Intermediate Steps The great part of these intermediate steps is you do not have to continually collect the nutrients involved. You only have to have enough of the nutrients to keep the reaction going (recomended >500). But – if you divide, this nutrient like all other nutrients will be divided in half, so remember keep these nutrient levels high. For example if you used the Nitrite/Ammonia half reaction between the sulfur and iron example, you would need a small supply of nitrite and ammonia in your cell to drive the reaction. Nutrients you don't need to collect There are a couple of nutrients which do not need to be collected, which can be grouped into two types. The first type are those which diffuse freely in the environment and therefore the ammount in your cell is the ammount in the environment. Examples here include : Oxygen, H+, Nitrogen. The second type are nutrients are nutrients only found in the cell. These can be made in the cell and destroyed in the cell. See Auto-Metabolism Starting Metabolism Scheme Your starting metabolism scheme contains all topics previously mentioned. It is desiged to relate to the metabolism scheme you (as a human) use. The default metabolism has these 3 half reactions activated : CO2/Monosaccharides, NAD+/NADH, O2/H20. CO2 = carbon dioxide, Monosaccharides = sugars, O2 = oxygen, CO2 = Carbon dioxide. Basically what this is saying is the bacteria takes in Sugars and Oxygen and releases CO2 and water (just like you do). But to be more efficient it uses two intermediate molecules NAD+/NADH. For the very start of the game, the only thing you need to collect is monosaccharides, and because your energy is also dependant on 'breathing' oxygen, make sure you don't dive too deep. Also as you divide you bacteria, NAD+ and NADH levels will start to drop, so make sure too keep those levels up. Metabolism Manipulation Here's how to manipulate your metabolism. 1. To access the redox tower go to Menu->Traits->Redox Tower. 2 .On the left half of the screen, half reactions are shown. On the right hand, it gives details on each step. 3. Use the up and down key to scroll the list to see all Redox pairs. 4. Steps in dark green are available to use. Light green mean the step is on. White means the step is unavailable 5. To turn a step on or off, select the step, and in the lower right hand corner is the ability to turn it off or on. 6. In the upper right is how much energy will be generated per minute (assuming the chain is working properly. 7. In the lower left corner is "apply settings to all strains" , which when pressing it will apply the current settings to all strains of the bacteria. Category:Metabolism Category:Nutrition Category:Tutorials